Compartment guard



Dec. 6, 1932.

'V. J. ENGLISH COMPARTMENT GUARD Filed Oct. 25, 1930 WE W Patented Dec. 6, 1932 v VICTOR JOHN ENGLISH, OF VERDUN QUEBEC, G AHADA cor/traumas steal);

Application men Qcteber 25, 19st Serial no. 59,1433,

The invention 'relatesto a compartment guard, as described in the present specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawing that forms partof the same.

The invention consists essentially the novel means employed of guarding the entrance to a wicket or serving counter of a compartment, such as a tellers cage, as more particularly'pointed out in the claim for novelty following a description in detail of the'preferable construction. 1

lhe objects of'the invention are to safeguard the oflicer in charge of funds or other valuables in banks, trust companies, jewellers and other business or amusement houses where considerable sums of money are in danger through the operations of bandits;

to incarcerate the'bandit attempting the robbery in a very simple and effective manner and securely hold him for delivery to the police; to furnish to banks and other institutions and corporations an efficient means of'keeping the teller or other officer in direct communication with a single customer-or @5 client at any one time and thereby save. confusion and loss to both the institution and the teller through overcrowding at his wicket and: at the same time facilitate the passage of customers in regular order before'the 0 wicket without in any way delaying or incon veniencing the public; to insure the transaction of confidential'business in all dealings that the institution oflEicer may have with the person directly in front of him; and general- 8 1y to provide a novel means of dealing with the customers from a serving counter or wicket that will insure secrecy in the ordinary course of business dealings and that will also insure safety for the valuables placed in the .47 charge of the ofiicer as well as saving the'life of the oflicer in charge during any attack by a bandit.

In the dr wing, igure. 1 is a perspe tive view showing a compartment and the guardedentrance to the wicket.

Figure is a seotional plan view of the compartment illustrated in'liigure 1.

Ei'gure 3 is a vertical elevational yie'w of the compartment through the guarded en trance; It g Figure 4 is a detail of the door locking mechanism beneath the compartment en trance.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary view showing the lock' g connection to the back door of compartment. y Figure 6 illustrates fragmentary details of the back doorlock; Y i 'i v Figure? is a plan view of the door lockin mechanism illustrated inFiguresB and l. 'ike numerals of reference indicate gone sponding parts in the various figures; 4 'Referring'to the drawing, the" compartment, indicated by the numeral 15 is formed with a wicket 16, recessed inwardly'from the front wall and situated immediately above the serving counter 17." '2 i Y The arcuate walls 18 and 19 extend outwardly from within the recess 20 andon one side 21 the arcuate wall extends outwardly Z to a greater extent than on the other side2 2 so that the entrance plainly shown. '1 7 These arcuate walls 18 and "19 close in above and below the wicket portion, sons to metically form an inward extension of the. ,ont T5 wall 23 of the compartment, and at thesame time form an entrance to the wicketlfi. V

The revolving door 2tis formed of the two hollow sections 'or wings 25 and26, which converge from the arcuatewalls 2 7 and 2 8119 $9 the operating shaft'29 to which the said' seetions25 and 26 are fixedly secured.

Th pp n of th hafti j rn above the roof 30.0f the door in the door frame 31 and at the'lower end in the door 352 frame 31, the bearings for this sh aft providing smoothly running surfaces which'may' or my net be n t e rm o ball'bear h he low and 9t the ha t, be fi fleo ing 32 a ri's th ra ch tfiiavhi e s W enclosed in the fixed casing 34 from which the lug 35 extends.

The pawl 36 is pivotally secured to the lug 35 and engages the teeth 37 of the ratchet 33 5 slipping from one to the other of said teeth and holding said door from reversal.

The stops 38 project from the ratchet 33 at intervals preferably at quarter intervals and turn with said ratchet within the casing 34.

The locking lever 39 is pivotally secured to the bracket 40 screwed to the compartment fioor 41. and the pedal 42 of said lever extends through the'flooring 41 and into the compartment below the serving counter and 5 is convenient for footoperation. l

The lever 39 carries at its inner end a locking bolt 43 which normally occupies a neutral position so that the ratchet is free to turn without hindrance of any kind. i

The pressure on the pedal 42 brings the locking bolt between stops and the door is free to turn and just as soon as' the door has reached the extremity, that is to say, up to the stop, a further pressure on the pedal locks the door from movement in either direction,

as thelocking bolt, which is of the splitvariety reaches into the slots 44in the stops, thus any person entering by means of this rotary door pushes the sections around until the person becomes enclosed in a closet 45 before the serving counter, and presuming this person to be a bandit, he immediately points his gun at the oihcer behind the counter through the wicket 'andmakes himdeliver all the money withinhis charge, which the oflicer makes no objection to. However, immediatelythe bandit starts away with his loot, the officer presses down on the pedal and maintains the pres sure. with his foot until the locking bolt reaches a stop 38 and particularly the slots 44 and then the closet is changed, so that in placeof the open wicket before. the bandit, there is a blank wall, and he is unable to move the door one way or the other, for the door 45 cannot be reversed in any case, but on the other hand, it is doublylocked and can only be opened by the release of the locking bolt, which. can certainly be held in place until the 1 police arrive on the scene.

I Itis also important for the rear door to be locked while the teller is serving at the counter, and to do this the shaft 29 is connected by the belt and pulleymechanism 46 with the locking bolt 47 mounted on the slotted shaft 48 turning the correspondingly slotted sleeve 49. a 1 The slotted shaft operates coincidently with the operating shaft 29 and keeps turning the locking bolt 47 into open and shut positions, that is to say, across and in alignmentwith the slotted sleeve 49, so that 1n each open position, thatis to say, when the closet 45 isopposite the wicket the teller or I other officer is presumably facing his customer with his back to the back door, and

Leashes in this position the back door is locked, but

in the position where the door sections bar off the wicket, then the back door is open and the locking bolt 47 is in alignment with the slotted sleeve 49. There is of course another lock for the back door and the lock described may be opened by a responsible party or by the teller himself.

The armor plates 50 are secured on the walls of the compartment above and below the counters and shelves so that the teller or other oflicer cannot be reached from a distance by a firearm, as these armor plates can be of sufficient thickness to stop the bullet of the ordinaryfirearmr' I The operation has been fairly well de- I scribed in explaining the details of the invention, but it will be readily seen that this entrance'door'tothe wicket of the teller or other.ofiicer,offers no obstruction at all even for'very crowded banks and trust companies, where long lines of persons are continually urging their way to the front of the teller s wicket, so much so that two or three customers behind the one being served have full knowledge of the business being transacted at the time and there is no necessity for this because with this compartment guard, only one person can reach the teller at a time and yet there is no delay-in the next persons'arrival in front of the teller.

'It is exactly the same so far as time is concerned because they just keep moving along,

each one arriving before the teller in the on proper turn and the line ofwaiting customers remalns-exactly the same as it is under'existing conditions, but presuming that bandits enter a financial institution with theobject of robbing the'teller, the usual procedure of m these bandits is to stand in front of the tellerswicket and in a low voice order him to push all his money towards the wicketand keep hishands up except for that onepurpose, this of course has been constantly done no and many banks have. been robbed of thousands of dollars and besides this, bank ofiicers have been injured and killed in trying to defend money'placed in their charge, but in this particular compartment/guard, the bandit certainlycan reach the front of the wicket just the same as anyother customer and he. canmake the teller stand and deliver, but once the wicket is closed from view, he cando nothing and he has to get out, therefore when the gun is turned away fromthe teller, he is hidden by a blank wall. The bandit is of course incarcerated and held for the police, whichis in the beginning the main ,7, object of thisinventiomthough' the-otherl 'as objects are almost as important, that'is to say, to prevent crowding at the .tellers wicket in banks,particularly on certain days in the week when there are many outpayas ments to make. i

What I claim is A revolving door and 'arcuate Wall enclosures extending outwardly from a counter, said door having diametrically opposite open compartments in one position and diametrically opposite close compartments in all positions, said open compartments formingclose compartments with said arcuate walls during the operations of the door and means for operating said door from a distance and looking it.

Signed at Montreal, Canada, this 13th day of October, 1930.

VICTOR JOHN ENGLISH. 

